Fact Check: The First 2023 Republican Debate
During the first Republican Debate on Wednesday, August 23, 2023, for the Presidential candidacy, several candidates made sweeping claims on policies Americans support and specific issues in the country:
Fact Check: Is climate change a hoax?
False
During last night's debate, Vivek Ramaswamy, one of the candidates running for the GOP presidential nominee, claimed climate change is a hoax. 97% of climate scientists have concluded that human activities like burning fossil fuels have contributed to climate change and alarmingly warming the Earth’s surface and waters.
Global temperatures have risen by about 2 degrees Fahrenheit or 1 degree Celsius over the past 40 years. While this might not seem like a lot, the temperature increase has led to the ocean getting warmer and ice sheets and glaciers melting worldwide, leading to increased sea levels. Warmer oceans are also one reason California experienced its first tropical storm in over 80 years last week. The World Meteorological Organization reported in May 2023 that climate-related weather disasters have led to over 2 million deaths between 1970 and 2023.
52% of Indian Americans also strongly agree that Congress needs to pass stronger legislation to combat climate change.
To learn more about climate change, visit our partners at Factcheck.org.
References and Further Reading:
The American Association for the Advancement of the Sciences. The Reality, Risks and Response to Climate Change.
NASA. Evidence | Facts – Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet
Tony Briscoe, Hayley Smith, and Alex Wigglesworth. What put Hurricane Hilary on a collision course with California? The LA Times. 20 August 2023.
Fact-check: What Republican candidates got right, wrong in first debate on Fox News. Politifact. 23 August 2023.
2022 Asian American Voter Survey Tables (National). AAPI Data. July 2022.
Fact Check: Do 70% of Americans support a 15-week abortion ban?
False
During the debate, former Vice President Mike Pence claimed that 70% of Americans support a ban on abortion after 15 weeks. In late June, the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research polled Americans’ attitudes toward abortion and reproductive rights. Most Americans had complicated beliefs about the issue. Two-thirds of Americans, or about 66%, said abortion should generally be legal. 25% said it should always be legal, and only 10% said it should always be illegal. While one survey from Harvard University’s Center for American Political Studies and the Harris Poll found that 72% of respondents collectively supported a ban at 15 weeks, subsequent polls have shown support dwindling.
According to Gallup polling, only 55% of respondents think abortion should be illegal in the second trimester of pregnancy as of May 1, 2023, with only 24% responding it should be illegal in the first trimester.
Furthermore, 93% of abortions occur during the first trimester - at or before 13 weeks of gestation - and only 1% during the third trimester.
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References and Further Reading:
Few U.S. adults support full abortion bans, even in states that have them, an AP-NORC poll finds. PBS News Hour. 12 July 2023.
